Horror of Combat

Horror is difficult to define. Nonetheless, it is widely accepted that it is an emotion, sometimes considered synonymous with terror, referring to an extreme fear. Horror is linked to the experience of an extremely frightening situation, which is different than terror, which is a feeling of apprehension. In other words, as Devendra Varma, a professor of English and Gothic romance literature, wrote, “the difference between Terror and Horror is the difference between awful apprehension and sickening realization” (1966, p. 130). According to Charles [Page 816]Darwin, we can even feel horror through “the power of imagination,” when we see a child “exposed to some instant and crushing danger” or when we witness “a man being tortured or going to be tortured” (1872, p. 305). Besides, it ...